​Emily Murman’s "veneris anatomica" has been paired with a dress from Sarah Burton's Spring 2024 Alexander McQueen collection. After 13 years at the helm of the house of McQueen, Burton dedicated her final show to the memory of Lee Alexander McQueen. The designer found inspiration in female anatomy, Queen Elizabeth I, the blood red rose, and Magdalena Abakanowicz, who Burton has described as a "transgressive and powerfully creative artist who refused ever to compromise her vision." Influenced by the death-and-sex-informed dreamscapes of Gothic literature, Murman's macabre and sensual poetry channels many of the defining themes of the McQueen legacy.

​​​— Paul Cunningham, Editor


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​veneris anatomica



I forget the phonetic alphabet
when spelling over a
funeral home phone
a quick shiver in suit jacket
say r as in [his name] while
wringing cord around finger
 
I dream of cool translucence
to be as wax positioned for
parting
of some still recumbent splay
me a thing to be dismembered
 
one night he
latex smooth & steel-fingered
probes soft spots in my wrists
fondles each obtrusive knuckle
& works me
until our palms press
impatient, blood-bright
 
yes, this my delight
two stifled gasps as
any give goes slack
every radiant cavity
w / in me
aching to be opened









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Emily Murman is a poet & mortician. She holds an MFA in poetry & is the author of I want your emergency (Selcouth Station Press) and all the light in here (Ghost City Press). Emily lives in Chicago with her husband & two sphynx cats. She can be found on Instagram @emilymurman